Ex-NC police officer charged in wife's murder dies

A former Durham police officer charged in the stabbing death of his wife has died.

Timothy W. Burns died Friday at Rex Hospital in Raleigh. North Carolina Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Pam Walker said Monday that officials are awaiting the results of an autopsy before disclosing a cause of death, but that foul play is not suspected.

Prosecutors say the 51-year-old Burns killed Maxine Burns last month inside her Durham home before trying to take his own life. Durham officials transferred Timothy Burns to the inmate medical facility at Central Prison in Raleigh, but Walker said he had been treated at Rex for about a week. She said Burns did not injure himself further while in state custody.

Burns worked as a Durham police officer in the 1990s.

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